Improvement in wrecking-frogs for railways



'SYLVESTER M. HUDSON.

Improvement in Wrecking Frog for Railways.

N0. 12l,875 Patented Dec-12,1871.

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PATENT QFFIGE.

SYLVESTER M. HUDSON, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN WRECKlNG-FROGS FOR RAILWAVS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,875, dated December12, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SYLvEsrER M. HUDSON, of the city and county of St.Louis and State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and 1mprovedWrecking-Frog for Railways, of which the following is a specification:

My invention relates more particularly to the device for clamping theupper end of the skid to the rail. The clamp consists of two bars, whoseends grasp the top and web of the rail, and which are held together by abolt or rivet in one bar that slides in a slot in the other, as shown.The

clamping ends of the bars are held tightly against the rail by a pinpassing vertically through them.

Figure l is a perspective View of my frog, a car-wheel upon the samebeing shown by dotted lines. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section throughthe clamp of the frog.

A are the ties; B, a portion of a railthe end is in transverse section.0 is the lower clamp-bar, whose end is made to fit one side of the headand web of the rail. The bar 0 has a number of holes c, shown by dottedlines in Fig. 2. D is a bar, one end of which has a return-bend, d, thatfits the opposite side of the rail to the bar 0. The bar D has alongitudinal slot, 01 through which passes a headed pin, E, whose lowerend is riveted in the bar 0, the head 6 of the pin resting upon the topof the bar D to hold the two bars close together, but allow one to slideon the other. F is a pin that passes through one of each of the holes fand 0 to hold the clamping ends of the bars firmly against the rail.This pin is made, preferably, of conical form, so as to act as a driftto force the ends of the clamping-bars firmly against the rail. Theholesf and c are so arranged in relation to each other that the clampmay be fitted to any rail, however broad or narrow the head may be. G isa pivotpin extending upward from the portion of the bar D above therail, and forming the pivot of the upper end of the skid H. The lowerend of the skid has down-turned claws h, that enter the top of the tieto hold that end of the skid in place. The pin F has, preferably, ahandle, f as shown.

The skid admits of being swung around about three-fourths of a circle,so that it may be readily applied to a car-wheel in any situation. Thefrog is used to replace cars upon the track, from one to four frogsbeing used. The lower end of the skid is placed to the wheel and the cardrawn forward, the wheel rolling up the skid and dropping from its endupon the rail.

I claim as my invention- The wrecking-frog, consisting of the pivotedskid H and clamping-bars C D, constructed sub stantially as described,and secured by a pin, F.

In testimony of which invention 1 hereunto set my hand.

SYLVESTER M. HUDSON.

Witnesses:

SAML. KNIGHT,

R. S. BRADLEY. (120)

